School Friends
by cloud cult
Summary: Getting accepted to the same university as her best friend, Sasuke Uchiha, was supposed to be the best thing that ever happened to Sakura Haruno. However, not everything goes according to plan.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:** Hey guys! I've been feeling the need to write a Naruto fanfiction (and just write in general since I'm on break this summer)! Some of the characters are going to be a little AU, but I wanted to write them that way! Anyway, please let me know what you think about the first chapter!

* * *

 _University of Konoha_

 _Dear Sakura:_

 _Congratulations! On behalf of the faculty of the University of Konoha, I am pleased to announce your admission for the fall!_

 _The academic and personal achievements you have already accomplished within your school and community reflect what we value, reflect, and expect from our students. You can be proud to have joined such a selective group of students. For years, students have entered the University of Konoha and left with the experience needed in the educational and professional world._

 _Sakura, we are excited that you have been accepted to join the University of Kohoha community. Please review the enclosed "Checklist" for the next steps in your acceptance process, and contact our admissions office if you need any help._

 _Sincerely,_

 _Shizune  
Director of Admissions_

* * *

When I read the letter, I screamed.

"What is it?" My mom said. We were standing in the kitchen, and I had just gotten my letter of acceptance to my first-choice university in the mail.

"I got in! I GOT IN!" Was my voice really this loud? I was never one to scream, and here I was. Shouting at my mom in the kitchen.

"Congratulations sweetie!" She beamed. Even though she hadn't been very keen about my decision to become a music major, my mom was still supportive of what school I wanted to go to. The University of Konoha was already prestigious, and had one of the top music schools in the country (the reason why I wanted to go).

"Thanks Mom!" I said, and hurried up to my room to call my best friend, Sasuke Uchiha.

I waited impatiently as the phone rang a few times - Sasuke wasn't very good at holding on to his phone sometimes, which resulted in a lot of missed calls from me (if it was something important like this). To my delight, he answered the phone on the first try. "Hello?"

"I GOT IN!" I shouted. Sasuke had already been accepted, of course. Early admission.

"That's great!" He said, and sounded genuinely happy for me. That was another thing about Sasuke, he wasn't always the best at showing emotion. Sasuke and I had been best friends since he moved here from the city in elementary school. To this day we don't remember how it happened, but that doesn't matter. Sasuke was one of the only people that really understood me, and I know he felt the same about me, since he never really warmed up to many people. Our sophomore year of high school his father had decided to move the family back to the city because he had just become the CEO of the large company he worked for, but that didn't stop us from keeping in touch with each other. Letter writing was our favorite method of communicating, but we also talked on the phone pretty often. On holidays, he even came to visit.

There was another detail though. Before Sasuke had left, we had considered dating. I guess both of us had developed feelings for each other in the time we had spent together, but since he was moving away we decided to just stay friends - it would be too hard, we said, to have a relationship. Besides, we didn't want to ruin our friendship.

I never told him that I had regretted that decision. My feelings grew even deeper for him when we were apart, and I knew that I wanted to be with him, even though I never told him. Ever since we had been accepted into the same college, I felt like it was some sort of fate. We could have another chance together, and this time I knew it would work out.

* * *

"Are you ready to go?" Sasuke asked me. We were about to get on the plane. He had come to visit me for a couple of days before we left for college - my mom had dropped us off at the airport, promising that she would mail me everything that I hadn't managed to pack eventually. I didn't have a lot to bring anyway, to my surprise, all of the clothes that I had been planning on bringing had fit into my luggage nicely, including my favorite books, my laptop, and a few pictures of my family. My carry-on was my violin.

"As ready as I'll ever be," I replied. Ever since Sasuke had returned, we had settled back into our easy friendship. I had really missed him, even though we had kept in touch.

When we got on the plane, it dawned on me that I was about to start a new chapter of my life. I wouldn't be living with my mom anymore - at least not full-time; everything was about to change.

"Are you still afraid of flying?" Sasuke teased me as we sat down. I had once flown up to visit him and he had met me at the airport, shaking from being on the plane. I had a fear of heights.

"No," I said, obstinately. To tell the truth, I wasn't sure.

When we got on the plane, I let Sasuke take the window seat. We talked happily about what we were going to do when we reached our new home (University of Konoha) and what we wanted to do first when we got off the plane. I felt elated, talking to him.

"At least we have two classes together." I said. Sasuke was a business major (because his family planned on him working for the same company that his father and brother, Itachi, did), but he had a music minor. The faculty at the university practically begged him to double major, but Sasuke had declined. This year he was taking some music classes with me that were part of his minor.

"Probably." Sasuke said. "At least one I would think."

Like me, Sasuke loved music. He was amazing on the piano, even though he often denied it. I loved listening to him play.

When the plane took off, I froze. All of the fears of flying that I had repressed in the past suddenly came back in full force. I found myself closing my eyes tightly as I listened to the engine of the plane rumble. When we started taking off in the air, I squeezed the arms of my chair tightly.

"Not afraid of flying anymore, huh?" Sasuke said, once we were in the air.

"Shut up." I said, barely opening my eyes to peek out the window. That was a bad idea, we were too high up for my comfort level.

"Ow." He said, looking at my hand. I realized that I had been squeezing his hand too.

"Sorry," I said. If I hadn't been terrified I probably would have blushed.

Once we were in the air, I felt better. Sasuke shut the window so I wouldn't have to see how high up we were, so that made it better. We continued talking, until I fell asleep.

* * *

After we got off the plane (landing was easier for me because I was able to mentally prepare myself for it more), Sasuke and I took a taxi to the university. The city amazed me even more than it did the first time I came to the school to audition for the music department - I loved how alive everything felt all the time.

"Let's check in at our dorms first," Sasuke said, "and then we can meet back up to go to dinner."

"Sounds good." I said, studying the map I had acquired of the campus. Already, I loved it. The buildings were old, in a good way, and made of red bricks. There were a lot of trees and flowers all over the place - it was like I was in a movie or something. I walked by a large fountain on the way to my dormitory, there were students everywhere - talking, walking somewhere, or looking for their dorms like me. A pretty girl with black hair walked by me with an instrument on her back. I wondered if she was studying music like me.

I finally found the building where I would live for the next year. It was made out of the same red brick that every other building on campus was made out of. I walked towards it hesitantly, unsure of what to do next.

"Hello!" A girl with two Princess Leia-style buns greeted me at the door. "I'm Tenten, the Head RA. Are you here to check in?"

"Yeah," I said, "I'm at the right dorm right? Clark?"

"That's it!" She said cheerfully, leading me inside. The lobby consisted of couches and study rooms - it was cozy.

"Sakura Haruno?" Tenten said, typing on a computer inside the RA office.

"That's me."

"Okay, I'll need you to fill out these papers, and then you'll be all checked in!" She grinned.

I looked at the papers, which consisted of an emergency contact sheet, a dorm agreement, and a sort of questionnaire to get to know us better, I guess. I filled everything out quickly, anxious to get to my room.

"You're all set!" Tenten said brightly. "Oh, and you're my resident so if you need anything feel free to ask me! You're room is going to be on the second floor..." She gave me directions - it was simple enough. I would be in room 232.

I thanked her, and then set off for my room. To my surprise, when I got there my roommate had already moved in. A pretty blond girl turned around, startled. "You scared me," she said, and then laughed.

"I'm Sakura Haruno," I said, moving my suitcase to my side of the room. "It's nice to meet you finally."

"Ino Yamanka." My roommate grinned. She had long blond hair that was tied up in a high ponytail. We had emailed back and forth after finding out that we had been made roommates. "I hope you don't mind, I already started unpacking on this side of the room..." Our dorm room consisted of the standard concrete walls, with two beds on each side and a window in between. There were also two desks and dressers for us to use - I wasn't sure how they managed to get them to fit in such limited space, but it worked.

"It's fine," I said. "I like this side of the room better anyway."

I set my suitcase and violin down on the bare mattress (I would make my bed later), and unpacked my laptop, which I put on the desk on my side of the room. "I'm going to go grab dinner," I said. "See you later!"

"Have fun," Ino said, busy adjusting part of her sheets, "we'll have time to catch up tonight."

To my surprise, Sasuke was already waiting for me outside of my dorm. I could see a group of hopeful girls already staring at him and giggling. After being friends with him for so long, this was typical. Girls always gravitated towards Sasuke, ever since middle school. It was no wonder that he had been so popular after moving to his new high school.

"Sakura," Sasuke greeted me. "You remember Naruto, right?"

Sasuke's blond friend was standing beside him, grinning. "How could I forget him?" I teased. Naruto had known Sasuke even longer than I had (they had gone to the same school before Sasuke moved in elementary school), although they hadn't always been friends. In fact, they used to hate each other until Sasuke moved back sophomore year.

"Sakura!" To tell the truth, Naruto and I hadn't liked each other very much when we first met either. I think we were both jealous that the other one was friends with Sasuke, but we got over it. "I haven't seen you in forever!"

"I know," I said, "it's great to see you!"

The place we were going to dinner was a café a few blocks away from campus, so we decided to walk. It was a nice day anyway, and Naruto caught us up on what had been happening with him on the way.

"Rin broke up with me," he said - Rin was his girlfriend that he dated his senior year of high school, "she said that it was time to move on, and that I'm too immature. DO I LOOK IMMATURE?!" It was like he suddenly forgot about us, and was now directing his confusion towards the sky.

"She wasn't worth it anyway," I said.

"I guess," Naruto said, "I've seen so many cute girls here already, Sarkura!"

He also told us about how he wasn't sure about the student union building because they didn't have a ramen restaurant - Naruto's favorite food.

* * *

The café was French and small, and it would have been perfect for me if the circumstances would have been different. Sasuke's mother had actually recommended it to us - she had grown up in the area and loved the place.

"This place is so cute," I said when we walked inside. Everything was so cozy.

"Do you think they have ramen?" Asked Naruto.

"Doubtful." Sasuke replied.

The hostess showed us to a table by the window. I felt like an adult, going out to dinner with friends.

"Welcome," a delicate-sounding voice said. "My name is Karin, and I'll be serving you this evening." I looked up to see a pretty red-haired girl standing at our table. Even though she had glasses, and her hair was swept up into a ponytail, she was beautiful. "Can I start you off with anything to drink?" She smiled.

I looked at Sasuke, who had a stunned expression on his face. Could it be that he thought she was beautiful too?

"I'll have water," I said. My voice seemed to shake him out of the strange stupor he was in. What was wrong with him?

Naruto seemed to be just as distracted. "Do you have ramen?" He said.

Karin giggled. "No, this is a French restaurant."

"Oh..." Naruto trailed off. "I'll have water too."

Sasuke ordered his drink - he got water too. It seemed like he was able to collect himself enough to start forming coherent sentences - which was better than I could say for Naruto. As soon as Karin hurried off to get drinks, I teased them.

"What was that?" I said.

"You saw her, Sakura." Naruto said. "She was so pretty..." He still looked dazed.

I rolled my eyes. "Boys, I swear." I muttered under my breath. To tell the truth I was a little jealous. Ever since Sasuke and I had been reunited, he hadn't said anything about what had happened before he left in high school. Had he forgotten?

Dinner was pleasant - we had more time to catch up with Naruto, and talk about what classes we were going to be in. Like I said before, Sasuke and I had two classes together, and that was promising. At least I would know one person.

Naruto, on the other hand, was undecided. "There are too many choices," he told us, "I'm just going to take a bunch of classes and try to figure out what I like." He sounded exasperated, as if the thought of having to make decisions was too much for him.

"I'm sure you'll figure it out." I said.

When it was time for Karin to bring back our receipts, she stopped to chat.

"So, are you university students here?" She asked us.

"Yeah," Sasuke replied, "we just got here, actually."

"Cool," Karin grinned, "I'm a sophomore here. Maybe I'll see you around?" She slipped him a card with the restaurant's name on it - from where I was sitting I could see a phone number written neatly on it. It's not like I was surprised, girls were always hitting on Sasuke.

"Maybe." Sasuke agreed.

When we left the restaurant, I tried to forget about the whole Karin encounter. Maybe I had just been imagining everything that had been going on between us. Maybe he really just wanted to be friends.

We walked back to campus, and I left my two friends at the fountain - I really needed to go unpack now. We said our goodbyes, with the promise of meeting up for breakfast before our classes tomorrow. Sasuke and I had music theory at eight in the morning.


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note:** Thank you guys for the reviews. :) I'm sorry it took me so long to update, I've actually been on vacation for the past month so I didn't write a lot. If you're still reading this, please let me know what you think! If these chapters are kind of boring please keep in mind that I'm currently setting everything up right now, and they'll get more interesting soon. I also had a lot of fun matching the Naruto characters to the instruments I think they would play! Even though not everyone is a musician in the story I couldn't resist...

Anyway, please review if you liked it! I'll hopefully have the next chapter out soon enough.

* * *

I woke up the next day at six thirty. Like me, Ino had a class at eight o'clock too. "Ugh," she groaned, and hid her face under her pillow. It was clear she wasn't a morning person.

I got out of bed groggily, and headed to the bathroom to take a shower. We had managed to get one of the dorms with a single bathroom, which I was thankful for. Some of the others had community baths, which probably wouldn't have been bad - just not preferable.

Normally I had no problem waking up early, but I had been up talking the night before with Ino. It started when I came back from dinner with Sasuke and Naruto. She had noticed that something had been bothering me right away.

"Hey!" My new roommate had said brightly when I walked in the room. "I just got done unpacking, what do you think?" I could tell that Ino was one of the girls that had everything planned before they came to college. She had even messaged me about it before we got to school asking me about my color palate. I told her it didn't matter to me.

"It looks nice," I said, trying to sound enthusiastic and failing miserably. I couldn't get that girl - Karin - out of my head. Did Sasuke _like_ her?

"Was the dinner bad?" Ino teased.

"Why do you say that?" I said. I felt bad for acting this way in front of my new roommate, but I couldn't help it. I just wanted to hide in bed.

She shrugged. "I'm good at reading people. Do you want to talk about it?"

I sighed, and sat on my bed. I had always hoped that my roommate and I would be friends, so why shouldn't I tell her? "One of my best friends is coming here too," I began, "and he's... basically perfect. We've been friends since second grade..." I found myself explaining everything to her, about how I had felt about Sasuke for so long, and how I had thought that things would work out once we came to college. "And now he met that girl," I said, "and I have this feeling..." I shook my head.

"That's definitely disappointing," Ino said, once I had finished talking. "Maybe he doesn't know that you still feel that way about him? Have you talked about it since he moved away?"

"Well, no." I admitted. "It never came up again."

Ino shrugged. "I think you should tell him," she said. "It couldn't hurt anything."

"And what if he doesn't feel the same way?" I found myself blushing. "What if I just make it awkward and he doesn't want to be my friend anymore?"

"Sakura," she snorted, "I highly doubt that he would just drop you as a friend after this long. It might make things a little more awkward for awhile, but wouldn't it be worth it if he liked you back? And if he didn't then you don't have to worry about it anymore."

That was easy for her to say, I thought. She had never been in this situation. "I don't know if I'm ready to do that yet," was what I said.

"Suit yourself," she said, "but don't say I didn't tell you so if it doesn't work out."

We talked for awhile after that, just getting to know each other. Ino was a communications major from a few hours away. "I'm not sure what I want to do yet," she said truthfully, "so I picked a major that I thought was interesting. I'm just going to go from here. What about you?"

"Violin performance," I said. Since I was in middle school I had known that I wanted to do something with music. I loved playing the violin - it was one of my favorite things in the world. My goal one day was to be in a famous orchestra, or a chamber group.

"Nice!" Ino beamed. "Are you going to be in band or something?"

"Orchestra," I corrected her, "and yeah, I'm so excited." Konoha University had one of the best orchestra programs in the country. I was psyched to be a part of it.

We kept talking, until we realized it was about one in the morning. Thus, why I was so tired when I woke up the next day.

Ino was already stirring once I was out of the bathroom. I focused on picking out what I wanted to wear - I hadn't taken a lot of stuff with me to college, so it was easy to unpack last night. I decided on something simple - jeans and a green shirt. The makeup that I put on was minimal. When I was done, I said goodbye to Ino and grabbed my violin bag. I didn't want to be late to my first day of class.

To my surprise, Sasuke was waiting for me outside my dorm building.

"Hey!" I said, surprised. "Good morning."

He nodded. "I thought you would come out early, so I thought I'd wait for you." My hopes were up all of a sudden. Maybe the thing with Karin last night had been in my head.

"Thanks," I replied. I was grateful that I wouldn't have to find my first class alone. Thankfully, Sasuke had Music Theory I with me so I wasn't going to be alone for at least one of my classes.

The music building was close to my dorm. That was part of the reason why I had picked it, honestly. Sasuke's was further away, but he said he didn't care. I guess I was the only one who worried about how far I would have to walk in the morning. When we finally reached it, I knew that I had made the right decision in the college we picked - it was perfect.

The music building was made out of the same kind of brick as the rest of the campus - red, and old-looking - but there was something about it that made me even more excited. It was huge. A whole building dedicated to what I loved. Not to mention, there were more dedicated to just practice rooms, and some were different recital halls were located.

"Are you okay?" Sasuke asked me. I felt like he asked that a lot, honestly.

"Yeah," I said, realizing that I had been staring at the building. "I'm just... excited, I guess."

He smirked at me. "Come on," he put a hand on my back and gently guided me towards the doors. "We're going to be late for class if you keep staring."

It would have taken me a little while to find the classroom if Sasuke hadn't been there. Calmly, he led me up a floor to one of the classrooms. There were already a few students inside when we arrived - a few of the girls stared at Sasuke as we entered. I followed Sasuke to a place that was close to the front and near a window. A girl with short black hair had already claimed the window spot, so I sat in between her and Sasuke.

"Hi," I greeted her when I sat down. "I'm Sakura Haruno, and this is Sasuke Uchiha." I gestured to my friend, who had already attracted the attention of the other two girls that were already seated.

"Hinata Hyuga." The girl replied in a soft voice. "It's nice to meet you."

I watched as the rest of the class slowly filed in the room. It would take me a few days to learn their names, but there were a few that stood out including a boy with spiky (almost pineapple-shaped) hair and a bored expression and another boy with pale skin and black hair.

There weren't many seats left when the spiky-haired kid entered the room, so he ended up sitting in front of me. I could hear him muttering something under his breath that sounded like "troublesome". Before we could say anything to each other however, a tall man with silver hair entered the room. Despite his hair color, he looked pretty young.

"My name is Professor Hatake," he said, "but you can call me Kakashi if we're not in front of the Dean. As you hopefully know by now, I teach Music Theory. This is one of the hardest classes that you will take in your career here at Konoha University - one of the classes that weeds the weaker students out..." He went on to explain what was expected of us in class, and the course load. To end the class, he passed out a competency test to "see how far along we were" with music theory.

"I think I got about half of it," I admitted to Sasuke. "I wasn't sure what to do about the counterpoint... what does that even mean?"

Sasuke, who had probably gotten a perfect score on his test, shrugged. "You'll learn it in the course," he said, "don't worry about it... why don't we get breakfast?"

We met Naruto in the closest dining hall. Luckily for him, he didn't have any eight ams that semester. Some people get all the luck. "How was it?" He asked us, before shoveling scrambled eggs into his mouth.

* * *

The rest of my day went okay. I had my first group piano class (called _Class Piano I_ ) at ten o' clock that I felt incompetent in. Although I had been able to fiddle around on it as a child, I was nowhere near good enough to pass a proficiency yet. The professor, a woman with dark (almost blue-ish) hair named Konan, assigned us some simple pages in our textbooks that included hand positions. _Simple enough_ , I thought. After that, I grabbed lunch with Ino, and then headed to Orchestra at one o' clock. That was something that I had been looking forward to.

The Konoha University conductor was Professor Hiruzen Sarutobi - a master, basically. I had managed to make the top orchestra, which had been my dream for years. That was something I was proud of - I might have to work hard at everything else, but I was a great violinist.

As expected, I was nowhere near first chair, but I wasn't last either. I found myself somewhere in the middle of the first violins. To my surprise, the pale boy from my music theory class sat down in the chair in front of me.

"I don't think we've met yet," I said, "I'm Sakura Haruno, it's nice to meet you."

He regarded me arrogantly for a second, and then replied. "Sai," he said. "We probably won't be friends." He then began to open his case and start tuning his violin. He had a great tone - I had to give him that. Still, I hadn't expected this. I mean, I knew there would be competition, but I hadn't realized that anyone would be downright rude to me.

I looked around the room, wondering if I would see anyone else that I knew. Closer to the back - where the wind instruments were seated - I saw the spiky-haired kid. His name was Shikamaru Nara, I had found out, and he was methodically putting together a bassoon.

Once Professor Sarutobi stepped up to the podium, I completely forgot about Sai. I was immersed in the music. One of the pieces that we had been given to prepare for our upcoming concert was Dvorak - one of my favorite symphonies. Any worries that I had over my music classes were soon forgotten too - I was where I was supposed to be.

When the day was over, I took Ino with me to meet up with Sasuke and Naruto. When she saw Sasuke, Ino's eyes widened for a second, but she didn't say anything about our conversation the night before. Instead, she gave me a pointed look as if to say "I still think you should tell him".

I ignored this signal, obviously. Later that night, I would wish that I had done more.

"So Naruto," I said, "I forgot to ask - what major are you?"

"Undecided," he said with a grin. "I'm just sticking to basics this year, Sakura!" I had never seen someone be so happy about being indecisive.

"That's not bad," Ino said, twirling some of the noodles that she had gotten from the dining hall around her fork. "It's better than just choosing something and realizing you don't want to do it after a few years."

I looked at Sasuke, who had been quiet the whole time we were at dinner. To my astonishment, he had been on his phone the whole time. Every once in a while, he would smile a little and type something. Part of me was curious - who was he talking to? The other part of me didn't worry too much. For all I knew it could have just been Itachi (his brother).

"Who are you talking to, teme?" Naruto used the childhood nickname that he had given Sasuke, noticing that he hadn't been putting any input into the conversation.

"No one, dobe." Sasuke replied, but continued to ignore him.

"Is it _Karin_?" Naruto put extra emphasis on the waitresses name. My stomach sank.

"Who's this Karin?" Ino acted interested.

"She's this girl we met last night at the French restaurant." Naruto said with a mischievous look on his face. "Sasuke _liiiikes her._ "

"Shut up," Sasuke said, but he didn't deny it.

"You've been texting her?" I demanded, and then suddenly realized how desperate I sounded.

"She wrote her number on the receipt." Naruto teased.

"I for one don't plan on dating right now," Ino said, possibly in an attempt to steer the conversation away from how much Sasuke liked the pretty red-haired waitress he had just met. "It's too soon in the semester to really make a decision about anyone right now. How can you commit when you're still trying to figure things out?" I appreciated her effort, but I wasn't sure if it would work.

"It's nothing serious," Sasuke said dismissively.

I hoped that was true.


End file.
